November 06, 2008

PMBOK(r) and Agile - Round 2

PM Bistro has a new post on Agile and PMBOK(r), referencing a post I made last year. As I've mentioned more work is needed. This includes gaining, sharing and confirming an understanding that:

PMBOK is a description of work processes, not a software development or project management methodology.

The presence or absence of PMBOK processes is not an option in the beginning. All process are necessary in some form. I did not used to believe this, but now I do. The school of hard knocks is a good teacher.

Agile is software development work processes. The notion of Agile Project Management in the absence of PMBOK process groups and knowledge areas is an oxymoron.

Joining agile and PMBOK means just that: A matrix with PMBOK and Agile (rows and columns) and checks marks where they are "joined." Without this as a starting point, its just hand waving and rhetoric about how they can share the same space.

Mike Griffith's paper is interesting. Yes PMBOK promotes Planning, just as Scrum does. Planing is Project Management. A Tautology. But Mike misses the mark as well. The 9 Knowledge Areas - where the action takes place in project management are missing

Michele Slinger connects the wrong things. She connects Process Groups. What is needed is the Knowledge Areas. Process Groups are too vague. You can be washing machines, software or Joint Strike Fighter's without ever discovering any differences in the processes.

The next step is to recreate the work Mike Dwyer did a few years ago. It's somewhere on Sharepoint, I just have to find it.

Comments

PM Bistro has a new post on Agile and PMBOK(r), referencing a post I made last year. As I've mentioned more work is needed. This includes gaining, sharing and confirming an understanding that:

PMBOK is a description of work processes, not a software development or project management methodology.

The presence or absence of PMBOK processes is not an option in the beginning. All process are necessary in some form. I did not used to believe this, but now I do. The school of hard knocks is a good teacher.

Agile is software development work processes. The notion of Agile Project Management in the absence of PMBOK process groups and knowledge areas is an oxymoron.

Joining agile and PMBOK means just that: A matrix with PMBOK and Agile (rows and columns) and checks marks where they are "joined." Without this as a starting point, its just hand waving and rhetoric about how they can share the same space.

Mike Griffith's paper is interesting. Yes PMBOK promotes Planning, just as Scrum does. Planing is Project Management. A Tautology. But Mike misses the mark as well. The 9 Knowledge Areas - where the action takes place in project management are missing

Michele Slinger connects the wrong things. She connects Process Groups. What is needed is the Knowledge Areas. Process Groups are too vague. You can be washing machines, software or Joint Strike Fighter's without ever discovering any differences in the processes.

The next step is to recreate the work Mike Dwyer did a few years ago. It's somewhere on Sharepoint, I just have to find it.